As I'm sure you've noticed, the result is that I slacked hugely on my blog postings.
Since May, we have had all sorts of fun at the farm!
We welcomed 27 calves to the farm, some boys, some girls and one set of twins. Many of these were born of first-calf heifers, who are now settling nicely into the routine in the dairy. Some are settling more nicely than others. Some ladies firmly keep "Four on the Floor" (Rangely) during milking time. Others can only manage to keep 2 or 3 hooves on the floor. (Jagermeister). As with everything, a bit of happy-scratching and alot of patience goes a long way. Our new milkers are coming along very nicely.
We welcomed 2 new horses (Gina and Dixie) and bid farewell to longtime resident DoRunBlueFortunate (Dewey) as she moved on to her new home with former student, Rachel Keating.
We gave tours, we made hay, we scoured the barn from as far up as we could reach to as far down as we could scrub. We painted the milkhouse, we bathed the cows and moved heifers on and off pasture. We gave haircuts. We milked the cows and cleaned the barn twice a day, every day. Life on the farm is grand.
Recently, we classified! our ladies looked absolutely stunning thanks to the help of a slew of enthusiastic UMADCOW students, a few dedicated student employees, and our staff. Everyone came in bright (dark) and early at 3AM and commenced to scrubbing everything in sight. Every wall, every floor, every door, every bed and every cow was cleaned and polished. Our herd's Breed Age Average (BAA) for the whole thing turned out to be 105.0, a pretty respectable number. The BAA basically is a measure of how well each animal scores within her age group (an old cow that looks old/average will score average. An old cow that looks young, will score higher).
Our other exciting news is that on our last test, our herd's production average was 91 pounds of milk per day! This is a Witter Farm record!
Much has changed at Witter Farm and there are new faces everywhere! Gina and Dixie along with the other beautiful ladies (and studmuffin) would love to see you. The dairy is full of familiar faces that have matured into adulthood. The livestock and calf barns have many newcomers that are learning the ropes and discovering how they fit into the big picture. Even the local deer families have grown up.
At the farm, we have had the opportunity to watch a family of turkeys emerge in May, a Mumma surrounded by a swarm teeny puffballs, blinking at bright sunlight. In June the puffballs had some color, and formed a more organized platoon. In July there were some funny little turklettes following around their Mumma-Turkey, ducking into the tall grass as tractors passed by. In August, A big Turkey and a pack of little turkeys with half their normal feathers marched around the feed bunks. In September the Mumma was taller than her offspring, but they all had matching plumage. Now, its October, and its hard to tell which one is Mumma.